Waterbeds have been commercially available for at least twenty-five years. In past years they enjoyed a fair amount of commercial success; however, they have always been substantially less than ideal as a sleep product.
Waterbed mattresses, when filled, are relatively heavy and, thus, cannot be used in some older buildings with weaker flooring. Furthermore, waterbed mattresses are characterized by excessive wave motion which often is not attractive to an aging population and is not conducive to restful sleep. Additionally, the water in the waterbed mattresses must be heated and, when more than one person is sleeping on such a mattress, disputes often arise as to the degree of heating which is to be used. Furthermore, unless the water in the waterbed mattresses is periodically treated with chemicals which often are toxic, mold, fungi, and other undesirable organisms proliferate within the waterbed.
It has long been recognized that waterbeds need to be improved; waterbed sales have been significantly decreasing for at least the past five years. Thus, for example, in Canada waterbeds represented about 15 percent of all the bedding products sold in 1989; in 1994, however, waterbeds represent only about 2 percent of the bedding products sold in Canada.
There have been several attempts to improve waterbeds which involve the substitution in part of an airbed mattress for a waterbed mattress. These attempts have met with less than resounding success.
One such attempt, which never achieved commercial success, is described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,115,526 and 5,072,469 of Boyd. In these patents, Boyd disclosed that, with the standard waterbed mattress, ". . . it sometimes became difficult for the user's skin to breath." Referring to U.S. Pat. No. 5,072,469, the solution provided by Boyd was ". . . an inflatable air cushion 23 disposed on top 15 of bladder 13 . . . " (see column 2). The air cushion is formed from vinyl (see, e.g., column 2 and claim 2).
Another attempt to combine air mattress technology with waterbed technology is a waterbed insert which has been sold since 1987 and is manufactured by the Price Mattress Manufacturing Company of Burlington, Ontario. This insert is comprised of an air mattress disposed within a foam perimeter, both of which are encased within a quilted mattress cover. The mattress cover assembly rests upon a four-inch layer of polyurethane foam disposed between the mattress cover and the waterbed frame pedestal. Although this product has met with moderate success, it presents several problems. In the first place, the polyurethane foam often develops soft spots due to wear, which then provides uneven support for the mattress assembly. Furthermore, the polyurethane foam is prone to become damaged when the mattress is moved. Additionally, the use of the foam perimeter assembly substantially reduces the effective sleeping area.
In an attempt to avoid the problems of such hybrid assemblies, several companies have attempted to entirely replace the waterbed mattress within the waterbed assembly with an air mattress.
In about 1981, Air Beds Inc. (formerly of 2082 Zanker Road, San Jose, Calif.) came out with a line of "Airmaster" beds, which contained a vinyl air mattress disposed within a quilted mattress cover, the entire assembly resting within a wooden waterbed frame. At least three separate vinyl air cores were used by Air Beds Inc. in their products, to no avail. Air Beds Inc. went bankrupt in 1986 after their product met with a substantial amount of customer disapproval; it is reported that their return rate (i.e., the percentage of purchasers who returned the product after the sale) was about 80 percent.
In 1985, Price Manufacturing Inc. also tried manufacturing and selling a waterbed insert assembly comprising a vinyl air core disposed within foam perimeter, the entire assembly being disposed within a quilted mattress cover. The air core used in this product was made from waterbed vinyl and fabricated according to the waterbed mattress manufacturing techniques which were conventional in 1985 (and, to the best of applicant's knowledge, still are). The waterbed insert assembly was sold as the "Price Airpedic Air Bed". In spite of extensive efforts to produce a first quality product, the return rate for this product was about 73 percent.
It is common knowledge in the bedding industry that many efforts have been made to replace a waterbed mattress with a viny air mattress, but that all of such efforts have resulted in products with return rates significantly exceeding industry standards.
It is also common knowledge within the bedding industry that at least one-hundred thousand spring mattresses are sold each year in the United States to replace waterbed bladders within wooden waterbed frames. However, most people accustomed to the feel of a waterbed mattress are not satisfied replacing it with the firmer feel of a spring mattress.
It is an object of this invention to provide an air mattress assembly comprised of an air core which can be used by customers to replace waterbed bladders within wooden waterbed frames, which assembly will provide the molding effect and support of the waterbed bladder without its concomitant weight and motion problems.
It is another object of this invention to provide an air mattress assembly comprised of an air core which can be used by customers to replace waterbed bladders within wooden waterbed frames which assembly will meet with a degree of customer acceptance substantially higher than that obtained with prior waterbed insert products.
It is yet another object of this invention to provide an air mattress assembly comprised of an air core which can be used by customers to replace waterbed bladders within wooden waterbed frames, which assembly comprises an air blower and means for introducing or removing air from the air core.
It is an object of this invention to provide an air mattress assembly comprised of an air core which can be used by customers to replace waterbed bladders within wooden waterbed frames, which assembly is comprised of a blower which can readily inflate such air core but can do so without generating a substantial amount of noise.
It is an object of this invention to provide an air mattress assembly comprised of an air core which can be used by customers to replace waterbed bladders within wooden waterbed frames, which assembly provides a larger effective sleeping surface than prior waterbed air-mattress insert products.
It is an object of this invention to provide an air mattress assembly comprised of an air core which can be used by customers to replace waterbed bladders within wooden waterbed frames, which assembly, once inflated, will retain its sleep properties for a substantially longer period of time than prior art products.
It is an object of this invention to provide an air mattress assembly comprised of two air cores which can be used by customers to replace waterbed bladders within wooden waterbed frames.